Friends

Projects

Ahoy Maties | 12/02/04

Ahoy maties. On Day 2 of our Caribbean vacation I got to do something really fun that I'd never done before--snorkeling. I will be the first to admit that I am a product of my upbringing: I have horrible fears of anything new. While within my family I am probably the most daring, compared to a normal person I am as closed off as anyone. It was for this reason that Jamie made me a deal before we left--if I agreed to try snorkeling she would, get this, spend a full day playing video games with me. And not games she would enjoy. Oh, I was going to make her play my horribly nerdy games like Civilization 3 and Playstation car racing games. Little did she know that I would have agreed anyway, but I put on a pretty good show of not wanting to do it and hence got a pretty good deal. Anyway, originally we were going to kayak out into the ocean reefs and go snorkeling from there but alas, it was more expensive that we'd budgeted and we settled for taking a catamaran out. I had never donned the snorkeling gear before and everyone on the boat had a good laugh at me. In addition to looking like a fool, I hadn't been a non-cruise boat in ages and might have had a problem or two standing up without falling over. Jamie decided to call me Sea Legs and ever time I hear it I break into uncontrollable laughter. Once we were at the reefs I bravely plunged into the water, effectively guzzling a gallon or two of sea water. After the nausea passed I moved on to really enjoying myself. We saw a bevy of cool fish and someone allegedly saw a barracuda but I think he was lying to get attention from the host of hot teenage girls on the voyage. Speaking of hot teenage girls, a dirty old grandpa poured beer onto his napping granddaughter's bare belly on the boat. Gross. Anyway, the time went by really quickly and I would happily snap that stupid mask on again if the opportunity presented itself.

The most interesting part of the trip was that I discovered my dad's identical twin. He was the captain of the catamaran. Not only were they completely identical looking (expect replacing my dad's Midwestern skin with tanned Caribbean-sunned skin) they also had identical personalities. It was uncanny. Had I had a camera I would have taken a picture. I was going to Photoshop up a nice picture but I'm tired.